1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk cartridge in which an information signal is recorded on a signal recording layer or a recorded information signal is reproduced from the signal recording layer with irradiation of light beams on the signal recording layer of an optical disk and a disk cartridge loading method, for example. More specifically, the present invention relates to a disk cartridge and a disk cartridge loading method in which one of loading recess portions formed on left and right side end portions of a disk housing in the insertion side of a disk cartridge is hidden by a shutter placed in a closed state. When the disk cartridge is inserted into a drive apparatus, the shutter is opened by a shutter releasing member of the drive apparatus, and immediately after one loading recess portion hidden by the shutter is exposed, the pair of loading recess portions are chucked by a loading arm and thereby the disk cartridge is brought to a loading position.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a recording medium for recording thereon a variety of information such as audio information or video information, there have heretofore been proposed optical disks capable of reproducing recorded information from this recording medium or recording information on this recording medium by using light beams. This kind of optical disk can be formed of a single disk and hence it can be easy to handle. Simultaneously, since this type of optical disk has a large recording capacity as compared with a recording medium such as a magnetic tape, it has been widely used as a recording medium for recording thereon audio information, video information and data that should be processed by computers.
Since it is expected that this type of disk can be miniaturized much more as a so-called disk cartridge obtained when it is housed within a cartridge housing, it can be expected that such a disk can be used in portable devices such as a video camera device. In addition, since video camera devices are increasingly miniaturized in recent years, a demand for miniaturizing video camera devices increases unavoidably even when a disk cartridge is used.
In a disk cartridge such as an MD (mini disc) which is an optical disk, for example, the disk cartridge has at its left and right side end portions a pair of loading recess portions for forcing the disk cartridge to be loaded on and unloaded from a drive apparatus.
While it is advantageous from a functional standpoint that the above loading recess portions should be formed at the left and right side end portions near the insertion side of the disk cartridge, if the disk cartridge is shaped such that two corner portions of the insertion side of the disk cartridge are largely diagonally cut off as the disk cartridge is being miniaturized, then this imposes restrictions on maintaining the above loading recess portions.
In the above disk cartridge such as the MD, when the disk cartridge is inserted into the drive apparatus, a shutter of the disk cartridge is released from being locked by a shutter lock releasing member in synchronization with the operation in which the disk cartridge is held by a loading arm disposed on the drive apparatus and brought to a loading position. There have conventionally been cases of a mis-loading or mis-insertion such that the disk cartridge is brought to the loading position even under the state in which the shutter is not released from being locked and remains still closed.
The present invention is made in order to solve the above problems and intended to obtain a disk cartridge and a disk cartridge loading method in which when a disk cartridge is miniaturized, loading recess portions can be secured with ease and a mis-loading or mis-insertion of a disk cartridge can be prevented.
In order to attain the above objects, in a disk cartridge according to the present invention, a disk housing has a pair of loading recess portions formed at its left and right side end portions in the insertion side of the disk cartridge and any one of the loading recess portions is hidden by a shutter which has been placed in a closed state.
In a disk cartridge loading method according to the present invention, when the disk cartridge is inserted into the drive apparatus, the shutter is pressed and opened by a shutter lock releasing member of the drive apparatus so that, immediately after one loading recess portion that had been hidden by the shutter is exposed, the pair of loading recess portions are held by a loading arm and thereby the disk cartridge is brought to the loading position.
According to the above disk cartridge and its loading method, when the disk cartridge is inserted into the drive apparatus and the shutter is released by the shutter lock releasing member, one loading recess portion is exposed, whereby the pair of loading recess portions are chucked by a loading arm and thereby the disk cartridge is brought to the loading position. Accordingly, even when the shutter is not opened after the disk cartridge has been inserted into the drive apparatus, the loading arm becomes unable to hold the loading recess portions so that the disk cartridge cannot be brought to the loading position.